ONE of South Wales’ best-known politicians was yesterday stunningly ejected from the Assembly in one of the night’s biggest shocks.

Jonathan Morgan, the Conservative AM for Cardiff North, saw his 4,843 majority turn into a defeat by 1,782 by Labour’s Julie Morgan, the constituency’s former MP.

It was clearly a bolt from the blue for the AM since 1999, who had long been spoken of as the next leader of the party in Wales. Mr Morgan, who swapped his regional seat to fight the constituency in 2007, looked shell-shocked as he stood on the stage of Cardiff’s Welsh Institute of Sport.

Mrs Morgan is the wife of Rhodri, the former First Minister. It came amid what was otherwise a successful night for the Tories in Wales. They took 14 seats to propel them into second place ahead of Plaid Cymru, taking Aberconwy from Plaid and Montgomeryshire from the Lib Dems, as well as picking up an extra seat on the South Wales West regional list.

Catrin Edwards, chair of the Welsh Conservative Party, said: “This is an excellent result for the Welsh Conservatives, achieving our highest share of the vote in an Assembly election, increasing our number of seats and overtaking Plaid Cymru to become the second largest party.”

Yet the success perversely saw leader Nick Bourne lose his Mid and West Wales seat. The nature of the Assembly’s voting system meant that the Tories’ success in gaining Montgomeryshire cost Mr Bourne his seat.

He said he was “obviously very disappointed” to lose his seat. “I’ve loved what I’ve been doing in the Assembly,” he said.

Ms Edwards said: “I am sorry that the Welsh Conservative Party lost a respected colleague and close friend in the Assembly in Nick Bourne.”

Another South Wales Conservative AM yesterday became the first to state publicly he would seek to succeed Mr Bourne as Conservative leader. South Wales Central AM Andrew RT Davies, who resigned as Shadow Health Minister last year following an apparent row with Mr Bourne, was elected on the regional list with fellow Tory David Melding. He said he planned to put his name forward following a meeting of Tory AMs and officials this weekend. The meeting will decide on an interim leader before opening nominations for a formal leadership contest.